CAREER: Structure and resilience of social networks under population turnover

动物生活在个体的社交网络中，这些个体影响着彼此的生活。然而，社交网络必须随着时间而变化;例如，所有社交网络最终都会因死亡或分散而失去个体，而新的个体会通过出生和移民加入社交网络。因此，出生、死亡和运动等简单而普遍的过程从根本上塑造了任何给定时间的社交网络的结构。这个项目的一个主要目标是了解人口统计学和社会行为如何相互作用，影响社交网络的发展和稳定。该项目将把理论模型与长期实地研究相结合，重点是越冬候鸟物种金冠麻雀的群体协会社会网络。候鸟的季节性社交网络允许重复研究网络形成的过程中，每年都有新老个体出现在种群中。总的来说，这个项目将提出新的问题，这些问题可以揭示社会如何形成的过程，以及面对动物种群甚至人类社会不断变化的社会结构的弹性。该项目将把研究目标与两种不同类型的教育活动结合起来：编制关于可复制研究的教学课程和招收有移民/难民背景的学生接受高等教育和科学。本计画提出一个一般架构，以了解人口流动下社交网络的时间动态。该模型将这一过程分为三个步骤：节点丢失、节点附着和社会融合。节点损失和节点附着动态描述人口的影响，而社会融合捕获的过程中形成新的羊群协会。该模型将使研究的人口统计学，社会过程，社会地位的健身后果的社会网络结构的联合影响。基于实地的实证工作将探索自然的长期动态社交网络跨越多代的一个单一的鸟类物种。将进行实地实验，以测试社会地位对行为的影响，如寻找新的食物来源，以及社会关系对优势互动的影响。 该项目的教育目标将为改善教育和增强STEM的多样性做出重大贡献。该项目将通过制定新的课程，提高数百名本科生和研究生进行可复制研究的能力。该项目还将努力增加对一个被严重忽视、服务不足的社区的征聘，中西部的难民和移民人口。难民是内布拉斯加州多样性的隐藏来源，增加这些学生的机会将加强美国的劳动力。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Animals live within social networks of individuals that affect each other's lives. However, social networks must change across time; for example, all social networks eventually lose individuals through death or dispersal, and new individuals join social networks through birth and immigration. Thus, the simple and universal processes of birth, death and movement fundamentally shape the structure of social networks at any given time. A major goal of this project is to understand how demography and social behavior interact to affect the development and stability of social networks across time. The project will integrate theoretical models with long-term field research focusing on the social network of flock associations in a wintering migrant bird species, the golden-crowned sparrow. Seasonal social networks in migratory birds allows for the repeated study of the process of network formation with a mix of old and new individuals present in the population each year. As a whole, this project will pose new questions that can shed light on the processes that govern how societies take shape, and the resilience of social structure in the face of constant change, in animal populations and even in human societies. The project will integrate research goals with two different types of educational activities: development of teaching curricula on reproducible research and the recruitment of students of immigrant/refugee background to higher education and science. This project proposes a general framework for understanding the temporal dynamics of social networks under population turnover. The model breaks the process into three steps: node loss, node attachment and social integration. Node loss and node attachment dynamics describe the effects of demography, while social integration captures the processes underlying the formation of new flock associations. This model will enable the study of the joint effects of demography, social processes, and fitness consequences of social position on social network structure. The field-based empirical work will explore natural long-term dynamics in social networks spanning multiple generations of a single avian species. Field experiments will be conducted to test the effects of social position on behaviors such as finding novel food sources, as well as, the effects of social relations on dominance interactions. The educational objectives of this project will make significant contributions towards improving education and enhancing diversity in STEM. This project will enhance the capacity for reproducible research among hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students through development of new curricula. The project will also work to increase recruitment of a significantly overlooked, under-served community, i.e., refugee and immigrant populations in the Midwest. Refugees are hidden sources of diversity in Nebraska and enhancing opportunities for these students will strengthen the U.S. workforce.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.